Characterizing animals

[limyaael]

This is meant to apply as broadly as possible-to normal animals, telcoms (telepathic companions), shapeshifters, and author-created fantasy animals. Some of it does assume that you’re writing from the animal’s point-of-view, but it could also be useful for describing them from the outside.

Comments

[deire]

:wry g and wave: Not sure where I friended you.

Also, farmers put a lot of food and work into raising livestock. A farmer that loses a cow is going to be very, very upset. So if the animal companion sneaks off and eats the cow, it's a huge deal. In addition, a predator attacking a large herbivore can get badly injured. Especially when not hunting in a pack.

[pyrasaur]

All very good points. I'm developing a story where the protagonist practices telepathy with animals -- I knew from the beginning that I didn't want the animals to be walking plot devices, but I'll sure have my work cut out for me if I want them to be realistic.

[ciage]

Ostriches I've seen in Conan comics, but never by the barbrian himself. Chocobos, on the other hand...

Wow, this rant brings back memories of eco class. I always wondered how many people a day would be required to feed a pit of gaitors. I suppose it depends on how many gators there are.

I really liked the aspect of thinking it from the animal's perspective. I think a clear understanding of the relationship between animals and people also helps, given if someone needs to steal a horse to get somewhere fast, some horses might prove better than others.

[solesakuma]

There are ostrich horses in Avatarverse.
And word to the rant: some writers seem to have never owned a pet.

[saltnester]

Hawkmoon's giant flamingoes!

Ostriches

[anchiornis]

Can be ridden in real life, actually. Google "ostrich riding" or "ostrich jockey".

One of my favorite riding animals in fiction, although I don't use them often, because I like forest biomes. (I wonder if cassowaries would be large enough... Wikipedia says they're about human height.)

[fishwithfeet]

In this particular field I actually feel as though I've gotten it right. I grew up around horses and some other various farm animals (but particularly horses and I admit they feature widely in my writing) and I know how they behave and how they 'emote' so to speak. The ears are extremely expressive, in fact, every body movement tends to be indicative of mood. I use these little details to make my animals seem a little more realistic.

I also like that you touched on feed. Nothing annoys me more when I read an adventure story where Hero and Party go gallivanting off with their trusty steeds and no mention is made of a) food for the animals or b) pack animals.

[gehayi]

Don't forget bats--another unattractive animal that adapts to living among humans. There is--or at least was, when I was last working--a huge flock of bats that inhabits the tower of one of the big insurance companies in Hartford. Every night at rush hour--around 5:00 to 5:30 p.m.--these bats would fly from the tower to start their nightly hunt. There were so many of them that they turned the sky black. You could hear them cry (bats have an eerie, high-pitched cry, and it always gave me chills) from inside your car. You could even hear the rustle of thousands of leathery wings.

[eolian_sprite]

Holy batman! I think bats are rather interesting, though. I have a plastic/fuzzy bat thing hanging by my desk. Yes, it has the face of a punchd-in rat, but the furry body + leather wing combination is kind of cuddly from a distance. If you squint.

And, well, wow. This almost gives credibility to Batman. o_O

Bats and Birds

[catskickass]

Hartford, Connecticut? Wow! I never heard of so many bats in one place, let alone saw them, let alone in Connecticut! I grew up in a suburb in Fairfield County and only saw a bat twice. (One time it swooped on a tennis ball--we were playing at dusk

[cat_i_th_adage]

There's a bit in Janet Kagan's Mirabile (which is about terraforming, and adapting to the existing ecology, and a few complications thereof), when the colonists desperately need an insectivore and cook up a few bats. After a certain amount of touch-and-go nursing, they look at the grown-up beasties and think "Furry, small, utterly darling. And they catch insects too!"

Well, they'd been coloured bright red and yellow so the native beasties wouldn't eat them.

**

The song-birds in my city have a habit of flying around dramatically and shrieking when the sky starts to dim.